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The boss of Britain’s biggest energy supplier has managed to cool the simmering discontent within its shareholder base, despite an exodus of customer accounts and a battering from the "Beast from the East".

Iain Conn, the chief executive of British Gas parent company Centrica, told shareholders ahead of the annual general meeting on Monday that British Gas took a major hit to its energy services division due to a record number of broken boilers during the spell of freezing temperatures in February and March.

He added that the supplier lost another 110,000 domestic customers this year, but said the losses were materially lower than the 823,000 hemorrhaged between July and October last year.